Railway Board seeks zones' inputs on CAG findings on dirty toilets, coach cleanliness

NEW DELHI: The Railway Board has sought a detailed response from all the zones to address observations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report highlighting several sanitation lapses, including dirty toilets, manipulation in passenger feedback and lack of financial discipline among others.

A report titled "Sanitation in Long Distance Trains in Indian Railways" for the period from 2018-19 to 2022-23 was tabled in the parliament on August 20, 2025, which made several observations on poor sanitation practices in trains while expressing dissatisfaction with railway’s response on various points.

The CAG sought detailed evidence and statistics from the Railway Board to substantiate several claims made by zonal railways in support of their claim of the effective functioning of Clean Train Station (CTS) and On Board Housekeeping Service (OBHS) scheme among other measures.

“In this regard, it is requested that comments/inputs on audit observations may be provided at the earliest…,” the Railway Board said in a recent letter addressed to the General Manager of all zonal railways.

The letter is attached with Audit Comments against Action Taken Note of Ministry of Railways as received from various zones.

For instance, regarding the excess expenditure over the Final Budget Grant (FBG) on cleanliness activities in trains, the Ministry had said that it was mainly due to operational exigencies and the need to continue essential cleanliness and sanitation services, especially during phased restoration of passenger train services post-COVID.

However, the CAG finding the argument untenable said that adequate mechanisms exist in the budgetary cycle -- Revised Estimates (RE) and Final Grants (FG) -- to secure supplementary funds.

It stated that citing exigencies after FG (final grant) does not justify excess expenditure. Talking about financial discipline, it said that expenditure must remain within sanctioned limits as excess utilisation beyond FG reflects weak planning and poor budgetary control.

Regarding the external cleaning of coaches at coaching depots and installation of Automatic Coach Washing Plants (ACWPs), the CAG found that the Railways’ failed to furnish specific and observation-linked clarifications.

It raised similar objections regarding Railways’ claims pertaining to en-route as well as on board coach cleanliness activities and highlighted systemic deficiencies in the implementation of the Clean Train Station (CTS) scheme, particularly with regard to restricted scope of cleaning activities, shortage of deployed manpower, and inadequate supervision and monitoring mechanisms.

It had also stated that the Railways’ reply does not explain why complaints regarding dirty toilets continued to rise or furnish evidence of systematic complaint analysis and corrective action.

According to the CAG, the Railways’ reply mentions sensitisation of staff and monitoring at divisional/HQ level, however, no inspection records, compliance reports, or documented corrective measures have been furnished to substantiate these claims.